Tendai Kamhungira 
AT LEAST 28 000 workers in the clothing industry have lost their jobs since 2013 due to the imports of second-hand clothes into the country, a sector expert has said.
The National Union of the Clothing Industry’s general secretary, Joseph Tanyanyiwa, told The Financial Gazette this week that the government must put measures in place to help revive and grow the sector.
“At its peak in 2013, the clothing industry employed about 35 000 workers but today, it only employs 5 735 workers. During this period, companies that were employing workers have declined from 298 to 103,” Tanyanyiwa said.
“We are facing numerous challenges such as dumping of cheap second-hand clothing in Zimbabwe. There is also a need for citizens to be made to appreciate the need to purchase locally, be it in the government sector, private sector or at the individual level,” he added.
Zimbabwe has become a dumping ground for cheap second-hand clothes that are imported across the world. In 2015, the government banned second-hand clothes imports to promote the local industry, sparking a huge debate as thousands survive on selling these wares.
The government, however, relaxed the ban in 2017 after finding it difficult to enforce, before reinforcing it again during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tanyanyiwa said the biggest challenge was that a large amount of second-hand clothes was being smuggled into the country, adding that there was a need to beef up security at the borders.
“Porous borders that allow substandard and cheap finished goods that do not meet the prescribed standards to be brought into the country are killing the clothing industry.
“We need to put mechanisms in place to ensure that people purchase clothing materials locally and also encourage productivity-linked wages that will boost production and consequently the sector’s viability.
“Government has to be encouraged to adopt consistent policies and empowerment laws that do not scare away potential investors who might want to partner with local clothing companies or to set up factories in Zimbabwe,” Tanyanyiwa said.
He further said that there were only 39 clothing factories operating in Bulawayo and 45 in Harare.
Meanwhile, one of the country’s biggest clothing firms in Chegutu, David Whitehead Textiles, is set for revival after years of going through different processes of judicial management. It has since started taking delivery of new equipment to resuscitate operations with the potential to employ hundreds of people.
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